The Solar System

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Transcript of The Solar System

The Solar System Mercury Mars Jupiter Saturn InnerPlanets OuterPlanets Uranus Venus Pluto Neptune Earth TheSun This is jupiter it is the largest planet Mars is named after the Greek God of War.Mars is referred to as the Red Planet because of its distinct red color.Mars had a magnetic field like the Earth, but has lost it. Mars temperatures are generally cold, ranging from -200 to a maximum high of 80 degrees Fahrenheit.Mars has roughly the same surface area of the Earth, but is much less dense. A Martian day is a little over 24 hours.A Martian year is more than twice that of the Earth – 687 days.Mars atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, which is toxic to most life in such large quantities.Mars has two moons, Phobos and Diemos.Both Mars moons have diameters of roughly 20 kilometers. Mars has huge canyons that make the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk. Dust storms can cover much of Mars for months at a time.Olympus Mons is the largest volcano on Mars and in the solar system. Olympus Mons covers an area larger than the state of Arizona. Venus is the second planet from the Sun.Venus is slightly smaller than the earth in diameter – roughly 6 percent.Objects on Venus weigh 10 percent less than on Earth due to reduced gravity. On average, Venus is 67 million miles from the Sun while the Earth is 93 million.The average temperature on Venus is a toasty 850 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere of Venus is made up primarily of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen. Venus has no moons.Venus takes 243 days to complete a rotation around the sun. The core of Venus is primarily iron.The planet is highly volcanic.Similar to Earth, Venus has a magnetic field but much weaker. The atmosphere of Venus is so thick with clouds, the surface characteristics were unknown until a Russian probe visited the planet. Venus spins the opposite direction of the Earth. Venus spins so slowly, one of its days is equivalent to 255 days on Earth. The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.The Moon formed soon after the Earth.The astrological name for Earth is “Terra.”The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun on average. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.Mercury rotates the Sun in only 88 days.Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis with one day taking 58 Earth days.Mercury barely has any atmosphere, but does have glaciers.Mercury is named after the Roman messenger of the gods.On average, Mercury is 36 million miles from the Sun. During the day, the average temperature on Mercury is 800 degrees Fahrenheit.During the night, the average temperature is – 300 degrees.Mercury is 38 percent of the diameter of the Earth.Mercury has no moons.Small in diameter, Mercury is the second largest planet when measured by mass.Mercury is primarily comprised of iron, which accounts for its heavy mass.Mercury has the largest known impact crater of any planet, named Beethoven and 643 kilometers in size.Mercury has an eccentric orbit around the Sun, meaning it is closer and farther from the Sun at different points in time. At its closest orbit, Mercury is “only” 46 million kilometers from the sun. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun.Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is so large, all the other planets combined would fit within it. Jupiter orbits the Sun slowly, making the trip once every 12 years. Jupiter rotates very fast with a “day” taking 10 Earth hours. Jupiter is not a terrestrial planet like Earth, Mars, Venus or Mercury.Jupiter is a gas planet held together by a massive gravity field. Jupiter consists primarily of hydrogen, nitrogen, helium and water.At its very core, Jupiter has a small metal core that is still estimated to be four times the size of Earth. Between the core of Jupiter and the gas surface lays a huge, dense ocean of hydrogen in a liquid metal form. Jupiter is essentially a sun, but without the nuclear reaction at its core required to produce light.The atmosphere of Jupiter consists of raging wind patters running horizontally across the planet. On average, Saturn is 886 million miles from the Sun.Saturn has a rocky core, but primarily consists of liquid metallic hydrogen. Because Saturn is a gas giant, parts of the planet rotate at different speeds. One rotation at the equator, a “day”, takes 10 hours and 14 minutes. At the poles, it takes 25 minutes longer. Winds on Saturn are often well above 1,100 miles per hour. Because it doesn’t have a rocky surface like Earth, centrifugal forces cause Saturn to bulge in the middle and flatten at the poles. Saturn’s density is less than water on average, although this fact is a bit misleading. As one looks deeper into the planets gas surface, density rises well above water.Saturn is extremely hot and sends off more energy than it receives from the Sun.Saturn has a massive magnetic field. Saturn is visible in the night sky with the naked eye. “Spokes” have been found running perpendicular to some of the rings of Saturn, but scientists have been unable to determine the cause of them. Uranus has a massive axis tilt of roughly 90 degrees. This means the north and south poles are often located where the equator is on the Earth. The reason for the massive tilt of Uranus is unknown.Uranus has 13 rings with 2 being very far from the planet. The rings are extremely difficult to see from Earth, but were photographed by the Voyager probe as it passed the planet. Voyager is the only probe to visit Uranus. Uranus is the third largest planet in the solar system in diameter.It takes Uranus 84 years to make one rotation around the Sun. Uranus is located between Saturn and Neptune and is approximately 1.8 billion miles from the Sun.Uranus is about four times as large as the Earth and 15 times as heavy.Uranus is now known to have 27 moons. The moons are named after characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Oddly, a number of the moons rotate the opposite direction of Uranus.Titania is the largest known moon of Uranus. Neptune cannot be viewed with the naked eye in the sky.Neptune orbits the sun once every 165 years.We have visited Neptune once with the Voyager 2 probe in 1989.Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.Neptune will be closer to the Sun than Pluto for 220 years and then reverse positions for 20 years.Neptune is more than 2 billion miles from the Sun.The largest storm on Neptune is known as the Great Dark Spot and would nearly cover the Earth if on our planet. Our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11 billion years.

Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.

Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.

On its trip around the sun, the earth travels over a million and a half miles per day.

No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.

Lightning bolts can sometimes be hotter than the sun. (about 50 000º F)

It takes only 8 minutes for sunlight to travel from the sun to the earth, which also means, if you see the sun go out, it actually went out 8 minutes ago.

In Spit Bergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.

In Newport, Rhode Island it is illegal to smoke from a pipe after sunset.

In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.

If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.

For 186 days you can not see the sun in the North Pole.

Every eleven years the magnetic poles of the sun switch. This cycle is called"Solarmax".

Because of the speed at which the sun moves, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds. Pluto is so far from the Sun, it takes sunlight over 5 hours to reach it. In contrast, sunlight reaches the Earth in 8 minutes. Pluto orbits the sun once ever 248 years. Pluto is two-thirds the size of our moon. Pluto is so cold, hydrogen and nitrogen freeze. On Earth, we breathe these gases to live. Pluto is believed to have an average temperature of roughly -63 degrees Celsius.Pluto has one moon known by the name Charon.The first time we will visit Pluto for a significant orbital period is in 2015, when the probe New Horizons is scheduled to arrive. It was launched in January 2006.Pluto is believed to have two additional moons, but their existence has yet to be confirmed.Pluto has an eccentric orbit, which means it is occasionally closer to the Sun than Neptune. Pluto is believed to be roughly 70 percent rock and 30 percent water.Nothing definitive is known about the atmosphere of Pluto or whether it even has one. One theory suggests Pluto is not a planet, but a twin moon to Triton. Triton is the moon orbiting Neptune and seems to have nearly the same characteristics of Pluto. One day on Pluto is equivalent to 6 and a half days on Earth.